birthday house

so, we've been house-hunting for at least four or five months now. some of our friends think we're insane--we're young, we're artists, we can barely feed ourselves. but those are actually precisely the reasons we've been house-hunting. my husband's wages have not been rising, but the costs of rent and food have been. in a fit of despair and daydreaming, i decided to look at some houses online--and stumbled across a foreclosed home that was absolutely darling. the website it was listed on happened to list, in addition to the price, what that price equaled in monthly mortgage+insurance costs.

it was half what we were paying in rent.

and being that all our other attempts at climbing out of the crap-hole we'd fallen into had failed, and we like our city anyway, we figured, why the fuck not?

over the next couple months of looking, the first three bids we made fell through. we then learned that, at the price range we were looking at, the banks weren't taking loans. they ONLY wanted cash offers (ie, investors). it didn't matter that we were willing to offer double the listing the price, they only wanted cash.

so, my in-laws swooped in on wings made of awesome, took out a loan against their house (which they certainly couldn't afford to do), and got us cash to make a proper bid with. and today, which happens to be my birthday, i get to see the inside of the house my in-laws have made a successful bid on.

once we've got it all fixed up (there's a lot to be said for sweat equity), we're buying it from them. we should have a proper home by winter.

no more moving. no more feeling like worthless moochers on our friends' couches. no more roach-infested moldy ghettos. fuck yes. we are thrilled. happy birthday, happy thanksgiving, happy christmas easter ramadan purim passover and martin luther king jr day to us. i'm 26 today, btw.